Published: Wednesday, 18th August, 2010 4:00pm

Big York race for Elliott

by Conall Collier

Pic by==: 97

There was a real Meath flavour to the result of the Ebor Handicap at York today when the Gordon Elliott-trained Dirar landed the big race for jockey Jamie Spencer.

Finishing strongly and taking fourth place was the Tony Martin-trained Salute Him which was ridden by Johnny Murtagh.

Elliott's five-year-old finished third in the Galway Hurdle and was sent off at 14-1.

Kieren Fallon was second with Rosika which was prominent inside the final furlong, but Dirar was switched to the rail and saw out the one-mile-six-furlong trip best to score by a length and a quarter with Bridge Of Gold in third.

"I'm shaking, I can't believe it, I thought if we finished around eighth it would have been a good run, this great," commented Elliott.

Winning jockey Jamie Spencer told Channel 4 that he had asked his agent to get the ride for him.

"Gordon said to me beforehand that we were drawn 22, and he wanted to know was that good or bad," commented the jockey.

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